LOR MAI FUN

As you know. We don't really panic anymore. instead we end up cooking to avoid queuing for food.

Scanning through YouTube were a couple of people teaching how to make Lor Mai Kai.

You can find it here, here and here.

I got my lotus leaves from a Chinese medicine shop. It was not on display. Asking for it was like buying something contraband. The worker will go to the back of the shop then pull out a bag of lotus leaf prying it open for me to peer. I had to strain my eyes to get a glimmer of the goods.

 According to some of the videos, the nodal point of the leaf is snipped off because it is the lease flexible part.

 soak the leaves in a small pan which was too small. I weighed down the leaf with a bowl so it soaks up better.

 dried shrimps were minced then added to water to soften up.

I did a lousy job because they don't look minced

over time I was able to fold the leaves and have them totally submerged. And no it does not have a floral smell.

 dicing some shiitake mushroom and soaking as well.

 chicken meat was season with salt pepper and oyster sauce.

I sauteed the hot pan with oil, garlic, onion and kauluck (water chestnut)

As it bubbled more violent,  I added the mushrooms. The smell swells and every one in my 3 person country visits me in the kitchen.

I take it all out and set it aside.

The same pan with existing oil has onions chicken introduced.  The chicken meat turns golden in the process.

added the cooked mushrooms again

more oyster sauce and soya

intermittently adding corn starch into this misdemeanour.

added some spring onions before I stopped and pour the whole lot into a strainer. I get a resulting brown gravy. It was very salty.

The glutinous rice was cooked, fished out and mixed with this salty gravy.

 I spreaded the lotus leaf now smelling like I make cigars,  and added the rice and ingredients

 I did not have lup cheong and added dried pineapple  in hope to instill some sweetness.

 like a Cuban worker I was figuring out how to wrap this package.

 as usual, with kauluck inside , I manage to wrap it some how.

I threw it into the steam oven,  half praying nothing goes wrong. I set it to steam for 45 minutes.

 while waiting for this oven to eventualize, I chopped up some cucumbers and emptied the center.

 like cut pipes!

I put them in a pan with water and put a lid on it the steam action softens the cucumber and I added onions and chicken into the void of the cucumber. the steam action cooks everything !

easy peasy. ok I stole half the idea from here which he obviously did a better job.



next

saute up spinach with oil garlic and onions, covered it with a lid and let the steam do the work

added the leftover fillings on top

 the oven reached its conclusive end and I brought out the bundles

still smelling like tobacco and looking like contraband .

a little in a state of uncertainty, I was wondering what will it be ?

my tobacco smelling package filled the room with the aroma of....lotus leaf and I was gripped with anticipation.

.

Oh no !

It looked distorted, like a millennial's expectation of a perfect ending shattered ! Everything tasted the same before steaming but less salty. You are befuddled why you even need to steam it. Being inundated by the lotus aromatics, I almost couldn't understand what the lotus leaf was for.

Why not use banana leaf? Why not put mango inside instead or banana ? Why not use coconut milk?

Meanwhile , the other people of the 3 person country sat quietly finishing the food.


This amateur can't handle this !

Moments later, we are chatting on what'sapp about adding patches to personalize the free face mask given which we suspect in not very functional.